Three Interesting Tidbits about ‘Django Unchained’ Plus a New Trailer

What’s that? The first 20 trailers for Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained weren’t able to convince you to see the movie? Well, never fear, yet another international trailer for the film has arrived and this one is going to be the one to do it. But before you give it a watch, how about a few interesting tidbits that have surfaced recently.

First, a reader recently pointed me in the direction of an episode of the late ’60s, early ’70s television show “The High Chaparral” you see to the right. The episode is “The Doctor from Dodge” and it would appear to have had something of an influence on Django, just check out the synopsis:

A dentist rescues Blue from Apaches and bandits. With no money to be made at the ranch, he decides to go after the bandits who have a $1000 bounty on them. When the bandits kidnap him and Blue, he tries to take advantage of it.

Outside of the revenge story at the center, a visual influence is quite specific if you take note of the image at the top of this article and watch the opening moments of the show you’ll notice the dentist in the episode is driving a horse-drawn wagon with a giant tooth attached to it, a distinct feature of the carriage Christoph Waltz is driving in the film.

I wasn’t able to find any quotes from Tarantino mentioning “The High Chaparral” as a favorite of his, but it is one of the television shows name checked by Kurt Russell‘s stuntman character in Tarantino’s Grindhouse segment, Death Proof.

However, one tie I was able to find is that of Cameron Mitchell, one of the stars of “The High Chaparral” who also starred in Sergio Corbucci‘s Minnesota Clay — Corbucci, remember, directed the original Django. Clay is one of Tarantino’s favorite Spaghetti Western’s and you can actually watch it in full right here for free, and when you do, be on the lookout as this specific scene from Django Unchained as it’s a clear a visual nod to the 1964 Western.

Second, RZA had to drop out of a part in Django Unchained as the writer-director-actor’s schedule wouldn’t allow as he was working on his upcoming film, The Man with the Iron Fists. Well, ironically enough, his character from that film was to make a cameo appearance in Django in a way of connecting the two cinematic universes.

RZA tells, Movies.com, “There was a tie [between The Man with the Iron Fists and Django Unchained]! And because of the schedule for Iron Fists, I had to let another character do it. I didn’t make it into the film. The idea was that Thaddeus [his blacksmith character in Iron Fists] would be on the auction block. You’ve seen the trailer, when the camera passes by all the guys? So Thaddeus is supposed to be on that line.”

And third, one cameo that will be in the film belongs to Tarantino himself. Cast member Rex Linn (who plays a character known as Tennessee Harry) told News Ok Tarantino wrote himself into a scene and “Quentin told me that he liked the scene so much he wanted to be in it too, and that he would also be taking some of my lines. So, you’ll know the scenes when you see them. We’ll be on the screen with Don Johnson and Jonah Hill. The scenes may not be long, but you will remember them.”

And those are your small cinematic nuggets for the day… Now here’s that new trailer followed by the film’s synopsis.

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, Django Unchained features Jamie Foxx as the recently freed slave Django who teams with the German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to hunt down a trio of lowlifes eventually leading them on a mission to rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from the clutches of Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), an evil plantation owner.